Killing Made Easy and Entertaining, even Essential

According to several U.S. prosecutors, evidence reveals that the four Blackwater guards, who are facing charges of manslaughter and gun violations in the horrific Sept. 16, 2007, shootings in Baghdad, Iraq, were motivated by deep hostility and hatred towards the Iraqi civilian population in general. If this is the case, then in America not only has killing been made technologically easy and socially entertaining, but it has also become ever so internalized and essential.(1)

After World I and II, U.S. military and political officials became increasingly alarmed when it was discovered that very few infantry personnel had actually fired their weapons. In order to combat these low firing rates, new techniques were designed to instill higher firing rates. By replacing small, circular paper targets with human-like, silhouette figures on the firing range, firing rates rose. Advanced weaponry that killed from a distance, and a barrage of propaganda aimed at dehumanizing the opponent, increased kill rates too.

The American Psychiatric and American Medical Association's observation that violence in the U.S. media greatly increased aggression did not go unnoticed. Working with the movie and gaming industries, military officials initiated pro-war and violent shows, films, video games, and music to encourage violent attitudes, behaviors, and values, mainly in children. Measurable long-term effects prove that associating violence with entertainment leads to emotional desensitization toward violence and killing in real life. (2)

Has killing now been made essential, meaning obligatory and necessary? With regards to the upcoming trial of the private contractor Blackwater security guards, the answer is yes. Evidence suggests the guards that killed 14 Iraqi civilians, and wounded 18 others, did not believe they were under hostile file but had harbored a low regard for, and deep hostility, toward the entire Iraqi civilian population. Furthermore, they had openly expressed hatred and euphoria to other Blackwater personnel in wanting to kill Iraqis.(3)

According to the prosecution's court filing, one Blackwater guard even admitted he wanted to kill as many Iraqis as he could as "payback for 9-11," and repeatedly boasted about the number of Iraqis he had shot, including an old Iraqi woman. Other guards, still in the Army, deliberately fired their weapons to instigate battles or to draw out return fire so a battle could ensue. Automatic weapons were carelessly fired at civilians from the turrets of armored vehicles without regard for who might be struck by the rounds.

Military Professionalism has not only collapsed but so too has American society. The trail leads from ordinary citizen-soldiers to the revolving doors between the Pentagon and privatized corporations, even the president. Armed gangs and thugs within the military, along with drug use and violent addictions, are not the only problems Americans should be concerned with. Then-President George W. Bush's political mandate, that he claimed to have won in 2004, was an unspoken mandate to essentially kill more innocent Iraqis.

Unequal and remote weaponry and wars fought from a distance, the over-militarization of entertainment and normalcy, and connecting 9-11 with Iraq through a series of lies and propaganda coups, made killing painless and simple, amusing and leisurely. And with the military-industrial-entertainment-complex's dehumanizing of Iraq and Iraqis in general, killing became obligatory and necessary, even privatized and extremely meaningful. Therefore, who and what should really be on trial?

"The combatants in modern warfare," wrote RichardHeckler, "pitch bombs from 20,000 feet in the morning, causing untold suffering to a civilian population, and then eat...dinner hundreds of miles away from the drop zone. The prehistoric warrior met his foe in a direct struggle of sinew, muscle, and spirit. If flesh was torn or bone broken he felt it give way under his hand. And though death was more rare than common, he also had to live his days remembering the man's eyes whose skull he crushed."(4)

Unfortunately, Americans do not have to live with remembering the eyes of the hundreds of thousands of Iraqis they have collectively killed. Nor do they have to recall the "crack" of the skulls they remotely crushed. But despite being disconnected from the realities of war, due to a fragmented and weaponized industry, and regardless of being detached by a techno-militant culture, the eyes of the Blackwater guards reflect a violent, socially engineered, culture where killing has been made easy, entertaining, even essential.

There were many Nisoor Square shootings in Iraq. Unless the U.S. addresses this aggressive and pathological epidemic, this complicity in killing, there will sadly be many more.

JAMES RISENTampa Bay Times Monday, June 30, 2014 10:58am Just weeks before Blackwater guards fatally shot 17 civilians at Baghdad's Nisour Square in 2007, the State Department began investigating the security contractor's operations in Iraq. But the inquiry was abandoned after Blackwater's top manager there issued a threat: "that he could kill" the government's chief...

Four former employees of the Blackwater security firm have been found guilty in connection with the 2007 shootings of more than 30 Iraqis in Baghdad that left 14 dead. A jury in a federal court in Washington found Nicholas Slatten guilty of first-degree murder. Paul Slough, Evan Liberty and Dustin Heard were found guilty of voluntary manslaughter. The verdicts came after a...

The State Department official tasked with investigating Blackwater’s conduct in Iraq says a manager at the private security contractor threatened to murder him. In a newly published memo dated August 31, 2007, Jean C. Richter, the chief investigator, claimed that Daniel Carroll, a Blackwater project manager, told him “that he could kill” him...

WASHINGTON — Four former Blackwater security guards were convicted Wednesday in the 2007 shootings of more than 30 Iraqis in Baghdad, an incident that inflamed anti-American sentiment around the globe and was denounced by critics as an illustration of a war gone horribly wrong. The men claimed self-defense, but federal prosecutors argued that they had shown “a grave...

WASHINGTON  Four former Blackwater security guards were convicted Wednesday in the 2007 shootings of more than 30 Iraqis in Baghdad, an incident that inflamed anti-American sentiment around the globe and was denounced by critics as an illustration of a war gone horribly wrong. The men claimed self-defense, but federal prosecutors argued that they had shown “a grave...

The State Department awarded more than a billion dollars in funding to the security firm Blackwater and its later incarnations even after one of the company's top officials allegedly threatened a government investigator's life, a review by The Huffington Post has shown. The New York Times revealed last week that the State Department's chief investigator reported being...

Private Armies (2007) (Available for two weeks only): Probing the culture of
Subscribe to Journeyman for new current affairs and science reports every day, and new feature documentaries every week: http://www.youtube.com/journeymanpictures
For more on Blackwater: http://youtu.be/8Y0xC8S6hKQ
For downloads and mroe information visit: http://www.journeyman.tv/57310/documentaries/private-armies.html
As the Iraqi government threatens to expel all foreign mercenaries following the Blackwater shootout, the role of private military contractors is once again in the spotlight. There\'s no denying that the rise of the private military contractor is transforming the way we wage war. They earn four times more than regular soldiers, act with impunity and - in Iraq - outnumber all non-US soldiers combined. ‘Private Armies’ follows the training and deployment of these men. From skidding around a racing track, practising escaping from kidnappers, to dodging bullets in Baghdad, it’s an eye-opening look at life as a private soldier.
Java Films - Ref. 3479
Every week Journeyman offers a brand new documentary, fresh out of the cutting room. They\'re award winning documentaries, some destined for the festival circuit and some for broadcast. The one thing you can know is that here you get to see them when they\'re fresh, often before they appear anywhere else. To watch them in full go to our VOD platform at http://jman.TV...

Private Armies (2007) (Available for two weeks only): Probing the culture of
Subscribe to Journeyman for new current affairs and science reports every day, and new feature documentaries every week: http://www.youtube.com/journeymanpictures
For more on Blackwater: http://youtu.be/8Y0xC8S6hKQ
For downloads and mroe information visit: http://www.journeyman.tv/57310/documentaries/private-armies.html
As the Iraqi government threatens to expel all foreign mercenaries following the Blackwater shootout, the role of private military contractors is once again in the spotlight. There\'s no denying that the rise of the private military contractor is transforming the way we wage war. They earn four times more than regular soldiers, act with impunity and - in Iraq - outnumber all non-US soldiers combined. ‘Private Armies’ follows the training and deployment of these men. From skidding around a racing track, practising escaping from kidnappers, to dodging bullets in Baghdad, it’s an eye-opening look at life as a private soldier.
Java Films - Ref. 3479
Every week Journeyman offers a brand new documentary, fresh out of the cutting room. They\'re award winning documentaries, some destined for the festival circuit and some for broadcast. The one thing you can know is that here you get to see them when they\'re fresh, often before they appear anywhere else. To watch them in full go to our VOD platform at http://jman.TV...

Leaked Blackwater Iraq Videos

published:07 Apr 2012

Leaked Blackwater Iraq Videos

Leaked Blackwater Iraq Videos

published:07 Apr 2012

views:275414

04/05/2012
Videos posted by Harper\'s Magazine show the private contractor formerly known as Blackwater in Iraq running over a woman with a car, smashing into Iraqis\' cars to move them out of the way and firing a rifle into traffic.
The behavior by Blackwater seen in the videos adds even more fuel to evidence that the company \"encouraged and rewarded the destruction of Iraqi life.\"
The videos are included in a piece by Charles Glass entitled \"The Warrior Class\" that looks at the rise of private security contractors. Glass had been shown the videos by a former Blackwater employee.
Describing the video dated April 2006 that shows a woman being hit by a Blackwater vehicle, Glass writes: \"A woman in a black full-length burka began to cross the street. The vehicle struck the woman and knocked her unconscious body into the gutter. The cars slowed for a moment, but did not stop, nor did they even determine whether the victim was dead or alive. A voice in the car taking the video said, \'Oh, my God!\' Yet no one was heard on the radio requesting help for her. Most sickeningly, the sequence had been set to an AC/DC song, whose pounding, metallic chorus declared: \'You\'ve been... thunderstruck!\' \"
Glass writes that the tape he was shown ended with the inscription, \"In support of security, peace, freedom and democracy everywhere.\" Common Dreams
*The five separate videos are joined into one here.*
FACTS & FIGURES
Blackwater is the mercenary firm founded as Blackwater USA in 1996 by former Navy SEAL and fundamentalist Christian Erik Prince. It received no-bid contrac...

Leaked Blackwater Iraq Videos

published:07 Apr 2012

views:275414

04/05/2012
Videos posted by Harper\'s Magazine show the private contractor formerly known as Blackwater in Iraq running over a woman with a car, smashing into Iraqis\' cars to move them out of the way and firing a rifle into traffic.
The behavior by Blackwater seen in the videos adds even more fuel to evidence that the company \"encouraged and rewarded the destruction of Iraqi life.\"
The videos are included in a piece by Charles Glass entitled \"The Warrior Class\" that looks at the rise of private security contractors. Glass had been shown the videos by a former Blackwater employee.
Describing the video dated April 2006 that shows a woman being hit by a Blackwater vehicle, Glass writes: \"A woman in a black full-length burka began to cross the street. The vehicle struck the woman and knocked her unconscious body into the gutter. The cars slowed for a moment, but did not stop, nor did they even determine whether the victim was dead or alive. A voice in the car taking the video said, \'Oh, my God!\' Yet no one was heard on the radio requesting help for her. Most sickeningly, the sequence had been set to an AC/DC song, whose pounding, metallic chorus declared: \'You\'ve been... thunderstruck!\' \"
Glass writes that the tape he was shown ended with the inscription, \"In support of security, peace, freedom and democracy everywhere.\" Common Dreams
*The five separate videos are joined into one here.*
FACTS & FIGURES
Blackwater is the mercenary firm founded as Blackwater USA in 1996 by former Navy SEAL and fundamentalist Christian Erik Prince. It received no-bid contrac...

040404 Battle for Najaf Iraq revisited BLACKWATER

"Blackwater in Iraq" by Harper's Magazine

published:06 Apr 2012

"Blackwater in Iraq" by Harper's Magazine

"Blackwater in Iraq" by Harper's Magazine

published:06 Apr 2012

views:62810

I put together the original clips, which are not mine, into one video. I do not approve of the content. The only edits I made were putting a \"part x of 5\" title screen between each segment and applying \"shaky cam\" correction, a YouTube feature. Doing this made the titles between segments go a little crazy, but oh well.
Apparently linking to the original videos caused a problem with sharing on social networks. I\'m sorry. I\'ve tested this myself and it\'s still a problem even though I edited this description. I guess it might take a little while for the change to take effect. You can find links to the original clips here: http://freetexthost.com/sjckrok3l4...

"Blackwater in Iraq" by Harper's Magazine

published:06 Apr 2012

views:62810

I put together the original clips, which are not mine, into one video. I do not approve of the content. The only edits I made were putting a \"part x of 5\" title screen between each segment and applying \"shaky cam\" correction, a YouTube feature. Doing this made the titles between segments go a little crazy, but oh well.
Apparently linking to the original videos caused a problem with sharing on social networks. I\'m sorry. I\'ve tested this myself and it\'s still a problem even though I edited this description. I guess it might take a little while for the change to take effect. You can find links to the original clips here: http://freetexthost.com/sjckrok3l4...

Video Details

Private Armies (2007) (Available for two weeks only): Probing the culture of
Subscribe to Journeyman for new current affairs and science reports every day, and new feature documentaries every week: http://www.youtube.com/journeymanpictures
For more on Blackwater: http://youtu.be/8Y0xC8S6hKQ
For do

04/05/2012
Videos posted by Harper\'s Magazine show the private contractor formerly known as Blackwater in Iraq running over a woman with a car, smashing into Iraqis\' cars to move them out of the way and firing a rifle into traffic.
The behavior by Blackwater seen in the videos adds even more f

I put together the original clips, which are not mine, into one video. I do not approve of the content. The only edits I made were putting a \"part x of 5\" title screen between each segment and applying \"shaky cam\" correction, a YouTube feature. Doing this made the titles between segments go a little

On September 16, 2007, Blackwater military contractors shot at Iraqi civilians killing 17 and injuring 20 in Nisour Square, Baghdad. The fatalities occurred .
Academi is a private security services provider founded in 1997 by Erik Prince. Formerly known as Blackwater, the company was renamed Xe Ser

\"Four former Blackwater security guards were convicted Wednesday in the 2007 shootings of more than 30 Iraqis in Baghdad, an incident that inflamed anti-American sentiment around the globe and was denounced by critics as an illustration of a war gone horribly wrong.
The men claimed self-defense, bu

Four Blackwater contractors have been sentenced for their role in the 2007 shooting rampage in Iraq that claimed the lives of fourteen innocent civilians. Paul A. Slough, Evan S. Liberty and Dustin L. Heard were sentenced to 30-year terms after being convicted of multiple counts of manslaughter and